Wisconsin lawyers, businesses cool toward outsourcing.

Byline: Jack Zemlicka

When it comes to routine legal tasks like contract reviews and document retrieval, the option of outsourcing the work overseas at a discounted rate can look attractive, especially during a recession.

But while some Wisconsin lawyers and businesses have tested service providers in India and abroad, many say cost is secondary to quality.

We're always looking for ways to cut client costs, and I look at these things on a quarterly basis, said intellectual property attorney Craig A. Fieschko. But to put it bluntly, it's still largely a world of you get what you pay for.

Fieschko, of DeWitt Ross & Stevens SC, said he has tried a few off-shore firms in India for patent searches. Some companies advertise their ability to do the work at a 50 percent discount, but in Fieschko's experience, the results don't justify the savings.

I've yet to encounter anyone who has had a good experience with them, he said.

Although the cost savings are attractive, one of the problems firms and businesses can encounter with overseas providers is they are detached from the client for whom service is being provided, said attorney Bruce Lindl.

Lindl is in-house counsel at Regal Ware Inc., a Kewaskum-based manufacturer of kitchen cookware. He has yet to send any legal work overseas.

While contract review may seem like a menial legal task, there are invariably differences between the approach someone in India takes, compared to someone in Wisconsin, suggested Lindl.

If a business is going with a company or lawyer in India, they may be very good, but the perspective will be that of someone from the country they are in, he said.

He believes that outsourcing makes sense only if you have a very high volume of work, with correspondingly large cost savings.

Mark. S. Jaeger, in-house counsel at Kenosha-based Jockey International Inc., agreed.

It would have to...